


Commander

by ArminArlertTheHero



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 10:42:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1092932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArminArlertTheHero/pseuds/ArminArlertTheHero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Armin always considered the Titans to be terrifying monsters. However, he would soon question who the real monsters of this world were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Commander

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, ArminArlertTheHero here, i managed to get an archiveofourown account and i am going to be posting my aruani stories here. happy reading!

Armin gulped as a a bead of sweat slowly fell from his brow, a feeling of dread washing over him as he stared at the blonde female in front of him. He really wondered how he got himself into this situation, he was not supposed to be paired up with Annie Leondhart of all people. He had seen her take out both Eren and Reiner just the day before in one quick move and neither Reiner nor Eren were pushovers when it came to hand to hand combat. If those two were beaten with so little effort by the petite blonde girl then what chance would he have?

On the bright side, he considered himself lucky enough that he hadn’t been paired up with Mikasa, he sent a silent prayer to Connie whose screams began to sound through the training area as the exercise began.

“Pay attention Arlert...” Annie said, her voice dull.

“R-right!” Armin answered, wishing that they didn’t have to start yet.

With that, Armin charged at her.

It had happened in the blink of an eye, one second he had been running full speed at her, then suddenly pain exploded on the back of his head and lower back. Armin found himself wondering why he was suddenly looking at the clear blue sky.

He blinked “Eh....?”

Armin heard her scoff as she stood over him, “You are pathetic Armin...” she gave him a cold glare that send shivers down his spine. His mouth started to move, desperate to apologize for being so weak. he figured someone as strong as her would be repulsed by someone as weak as him.

“Im so-”

“The only one you should be apologizing to is yourself.”

Armin stood back up and dusted himself off, He gave her a confused look not understanding what she meant with her statement. Annie seemed to read his silent question and grabbed his collar roughly to bring his face closer to hers.

“It was in your eyes when you came at me, you had already given up.” Her usually tired looking eyes was fierce and sharp as she glared at him. “As a soldier your expected to engage a titan knowing how much of a disadvantage you have, yet your a giving up when your going against a weak and frail girl like me.”

Armin highly disagreed with the last part but he decided to keep that thought to himself.

Annie let him go and began to walk away from him “Don't waste my time Armin.”

Armin stared after her feeling guilty and regretful. Hadn’t he made the choice to join the recon corps? Hadn’t he made the choice to follow Eren and help humanity the best way he knew how, even if he was weak, or if he couldn’t slay a single titan, Armin had decided a long time ago that he would rather take up a sword and a 3d maneuver gear than sit around and watch humanity be decimated.

And now that he was a soldier in training he had given up and forgotten the reason why he was here. He clenched his fists in anger and self-loathing, this wasn't the first time he had given up on a training exercise. Armin clenched his teeth his eyes becoming furious with determination. 

 

He picked up the fallen wooden dagger. “Annie!” He tossed her the dagger. The blonde girl turned around surprised as the small wooden weapon flew at her, she caught it with one hand. She looked down at the blade then back at Armin.

Her eyes widened as Armin got into position. “Were not done yet!”

Annie's face slowly started to form a small barely noticeable smirk. “That’s more like it.”

\---------

Armin couldn't breathe, his entire body was racked with pain, and he was pretty sure his spleen had moved to three different locations throughout the course of the day. Worst of all despite all his effort he hadn’t manage to strip her of the dagger even once nor had he failed to stop her from acquiring his when they had switched roles. 

Needless to say Armin was feeling a little pathetic right now.

“We can leave you know, the exercise has been over for awhile now.”

Armin coughed, struggling to get oxygen in his burning lungs “Yeah....sounds good.”

Annie stood beside him for a moment before walking away slowly towards the trainee cabins.

After she had left Armin had managed to drag himself towards the cabins where he showered and changed from his trainee gear to more casual clothes. He found himself heading towards the cafeteria, his stomach demanding some sort of food, he wasn’t usually a big eater but he was really hoping that whatever they were having was high in quantity, at this point he really didn't care about quality.

The blonde received his meal rather quickly considering everyone had already gotten theirs and sat down with friends and acquaintances to eat. The blonde boy immediately scanned the room for his childhood friends Eren and Mikasa. He spotted the two on a table near the middle of the room,however he frowned when he noticed that the table was full. Not wanting to intrude and not feeling particularly chatty Armin tried to find the nearest empty seat so he could focus entirely on his food.

Luckily he spotted an empty seat near the far corner of the room and made his way to sit down. Armin dropped on the seat with a tired sigh and began to chomp away at his meal like a madman. He hadn’t felt this ravenous since he was younger and the first wall had been breached and he was savoring every piece of bread he could get.

“What are you doing?”

Armin choked as he suddenly found himself on the other side of Annie Leondhart's cold glare.

“E-eating.”

Armin began to sweat nervously, had she been there the entire time!? Damn, he hadn’t even noticed. And why was she looking at him like he had done something to her?

“Leave. Now.” There was the slightest hint of a threat in her voice.

Armin really wanted to, if he could he would've been gone in a second but unfortunately for him there were no other seats.

“Umm, there’s really nowhere else to sit, so I guess were stuck with each other.” he gave her an awkward smile. Armin was well aware of her anti-social behavior, and he truly felt bad about inconveniencing her after she had helped him.

She continued to glare, and Armin could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

He had expected her to slap him, to threaten him, hell he would not have been surprised if she had suddenly jabbed her fork into his throat with the way she was looking at him. He did not, however, expect her to stick her fork onto his plate and take the small piece of chicken that the soldiers received and stuff it into her mouth.

Armin stared at his plate that was now clearly lacking in meat and let out a tiny squeak of shock and horror.

Annie stood up and left.

The blonde boy stared at her back as she walked away from him once again.

His chicken...

Armin hardly even noticed when Sasha sat beside him and asked him whether or not he was going to finish his bread.

Early the next morning the trainees were lined-up once again in front of the imposing face of Keith Shadis getting ready for an exercise. As Keith began to bark out instructions Armin began to wonder about the blonde haired girl who had taken his chicken.

She had eaten his only piece chicken, His ONLY piece of chicken. Armin had gotten over the fact that she had stolen his chicken pretty quickly but afterward it had left him wondering why she did it. Was it a challenge of some sort? Armin considered the fact that she was a very solitary person and probably socially awkward.

“Maybe she was hungry and wanted my chicken but didn’t know how to ask,” Armin said, thinking out loud to himself.

He had recounted the story to Eren who unfortunately was as clueless about things like this as much as he was.

“Today's exercise will be take place at the wall,as most of you will be working near or close to these walls in the future, it is imperative that you familiarize yourself with them!”

Armin shook his head to clear the stray thoughts, he would have to focus if he wanted to do well in this exercise. he really hoped that it wouldn’t be too grueling, he was still feeling the aches from yesterday.

Luckily the exercise was simple enough, scaling the wall with the 3d maneuver gear was a less harrowing experience than he thought it would be, it was almost relaxing gliding through the air and hooking to the wall. The feel of the wire pulling taught and the gas propelling him forward increasing his speed was a thrilling experience. He watched as some of his fellow trainees added some flourish to their scaling, especially Mikasa, who was twirling elegantly and going faster than anybody else.

“Damn it, how the hell does she do that!?” Armin laughed as he heard Eren shout out his frustration as he flew past him, the dark haired male trying and failing to imitate Mikasa's move.

Armin laughed when Eren twirled at the height of his jump but instead of performing a stunning acrobatic move, Eren only succeeded in entangling himself in his own wire. Armin panicked for a moment when he saw his friend began to fall, but calmed immediately as Mikasa swooped in and snatched him from the air.

“Let go of me Mikasa!”

“No...”

Armin sweat-dropped at his friends

“Armin.”

He turned to the voice that had spoken to him, he resisted the urge to scream when he did as she was extremely and uncomfortably close.

“Y-yes Annie?”

“Move, you're in the way.”

“Sorry.” Armin moved out of her path and without sparing him another glance she hooked her line to the wall and sped away.

Armin had been ready to start scaling the wall in the opposite direction, but something had caught his attention.

The clanking sound of the hook of the 3d maneuver gear bouncing off concrete.

and the distinct noise of an empty gas container.

Armin had whipped his head around at lightning speed, in a split second he had analyzed the situation.

Her wide-eyed look of shock and confusion at her failure of grappling the wall, her brief look of terror aimed at him silently and regretfully asking for his help.

Armin began to move before he even before began to think, speeding across the wall, his legs pumping on the concrete structure before jumping as high as he could. Armin shot his wire and propelled himself with as much gas he could spare. He moved so fast that the world was a burr and all he could see was the small but bright shade of blonde hair that signified where Annie was.

The was a brief moment where all he felt was the rush of wind going through his hair and stinging his eyes before he felt himself come into forceful contact with something that he really hoped was Annie. He wrapped his arm around whatever he had hit with and shot his wire off in a random direction praying to whatever god was out there that it hooked on to something solid.

Armin could feel himself slowing down, and knowing he was close to hitting the solid thing that would stop his descent Armin contorted his body so that he could take the full brunt of the damage.

All Armin Arlert knew after that was a brief second of white hot pain and what sounded like the shattering of wood and glass before everything went dark.


End file.
